Before They Were Stars: Dean Ambrose Wrestles a Dark Match for TNA

One week ago today, Dean Ambrose reached the top of the pro wrestling world and became the World Wrestling Entertainment World Heavyweight Champion. Quite an achievement for a guy who used to wrestle matches in which his forehead was sliced open by a Sawzall. Anyway, in 2008, Ambrose was still wresting under his former name, Jon Moxley, and got a tryout with WWE’s rival promotion, Total NonStop Action Wrestling, a.k.a. TNA. This is footage of him wrestling an untelevised “dark match” before one of TNA’s events against an opponent named Lamar Braxton Porter. In all their infinite wisdom, TNA decided not to offer Moxley/Ambrose a contract and he went on to much bigger things.